June Kerr (née Greenhalgh; 12 June 1932 – 29 October 2018) was an English-born New Zealand ballet dancer who danced for 11 years with the

Royal New Zealand Ballet The Royal New Zealand Ballet is a ballet company based in Wellington, New Zealand. It was originally known as The New Zealand Ballet Company. History New Zealand Ballet was established in 1953 as an independent charitable trust by Royal Danis ...

Biography

Kerr was born in

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in south-eastern Essex, England. It lies on the nor ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, the youngest of three children. She was one of the founding members of the London-based company,

Festival Ballet English National Ballet is a classical ballet company founded by Dame Alicia Markova and Sir Anton Dolin as London Festival Ballet and based in London, England. Along with The Royal Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Northern Ballet and Scottish ...

, which later became the English National Ballet. On 8 December 1956, she married New Zealand ballet dancer

Russell Kerr Russell Whiston Kerr (1 February 1921 – 15 November 1983), was an Australian-born British Labour Party politician. Early life Kerr was born in Sydney, and was educated at the Shore School, the Sydney Church of England Grammar School, and Sy ...

. The following year the couple moved to New Zealand, settling in

Auckland Auckland ( ; ) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. It has an urban population of about It is located in the greater Auckland Region, the area governed by Auckland Council, which includes outlying rural areas and ...

where June Kerr danced with the Royal New Zealand Ballet in 1959 and 1960. In 1962 Kerr and her husband moved to

Wellington Wellington is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the third-largest city in New Zealand (second largest in the North Island ...

as Kerr's husband was appointed director of the company. In the 1970s Kerr and her husband moved to

Christchurch Christchurch (; ) is the largest city in the South Island and the List of cities in New Zealand, second-largest city by urban area population in New Zealand. Christchurch has an urban population of , and a metropolitan population of over hal ...

and established the Southern Ballet Theatre. Kerr died in Christchurch on 29 October 2018.

References

1932 births 2018 deaths English emigrants to New Zealand New Zealand ballerinas People from Southend-on-Sea English ballerinas {{ballet-bio-stub